fácil

Forms

fácil m or f (masculine and feminine plural fáciles, superlative facilísimo)^[1] In the 15th century the word was usually fácile, the form of the Corbacho and of Nebrija;^[2] fácil became the usual form in the 16th century.^[2] Fifteenth-century texts also spell it façil and fáçil.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin facilis (“that can be done; easy”), first as fácile.^[2][4][1] The present form became usual in the 16th century.^[2] Vox dates the borrowing to the 15th century.^[5] Corominas treats it among the learned words of the family of hacer, beside facultad and difícil.^[2][6]

This adjective is formed from Latin faciō (“to do, make”) + -ilis, and so first meant “doable”, then “easy to do”;^[7][1][8] Old Latin also had an adverb facul.^[9] De Vaan traces faciō to Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), an extension of *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[10] The same Latin adjective was borrowed as French facile, first recorded in 1441, and as Italian facile.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest Spanish hit is dated 1410, in Velasco de Taranto's Tratado de la epidemia y pestilencia: mucho es mas facil el socorro en preservar “help is much easier in prevention”.^[3] DICCA-XV gives 1423, Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria, where cutting the food fine makes for más fáçil digistión “easier digestion”.^[13][3] A Lapidario of about 1420 calls a stone muy façil de esculpir “very easy to carve”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glossed the Latin word as cosa ligera de hazerse “a thing light to do”, and in his Spanish–Latin dictionary rendered facile as cosa hazedera “a doable thing”.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined fácil as what costs no labour to do or understand, and added two senses about people: one who lets himself be carried along by another's opinion, usually said in a bad sense, and an unchaste woman.^[14] The Academy kept the sense “easily swayed” through the 19th century, and the DLE now marks it obsolete.^[15][16][4]

The adverbial use fácil “easily” was very common in the Golden Age, in Lope and Ruiz de Alarcón.^[2] Cuervo noted that it was usual in old and modern Spanish though missing from the dictionary, and found it a little vulgar.^[17] The DLE now has it as an adverb.^[4] In Peru and the Dominican Republic the adverb also means “probably”, and in New Mexico fácil answers a question with “maybe, could be”.^[18][19][20]

Timeline

• 1410 – the CDH's earliest Spanish hit, in Velasco de Taranto's treatise on the plague.^[3][13]
• 1423 – fáçil in Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria.^[13]
• 1438 – fácile in the Corbacho, the first record in the DCECH and the BDELC.^[2][6]
• c. 1440 – the derivative facilidad is first recorded.^[2][6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary has facile.^[13][2]
• 1535 – Juan de Valdés uses facilitar as a new word.^[2]
• 1551 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[21]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “of a woman, frail, light”, absent from its 1843 edition.^[22][15]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology Del lat. facilis.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. easy: needing little effort, skill or ability: un examen fácil.^[4][1]
2. Of an event: quite likely: Es fácil que llueva esta tarde.^[4][23]
3. Adapting flexibly to circumstances.^[4]
4. Of a person: easy to deal with, approachable; of a child, easy to bring up.^[4][23]
5. (colloquial, pejorative) Of a person: readily willing to have sex.^[4][1]
6. (obsolete) Of a person: easily swayed by another's opinion, gullible.^[4][1]

Adverb

1. easily: Lo arreglaron fácil.^[4][23]
2. (Peru, Dominican Republic) probably.^[18][19]

Word family

• facilillo
• fácilmente
• facilidad
• facilitar
• facilitón

Related words

• hacer
• difícil
• facultad
• Latin facilis
• French facile

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 297
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. fácil
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. fácil
5. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. fácil
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hacer
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. fácil
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 338
13. ^ a b c d e Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. fácil
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. fácil
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 335
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 449
17. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 302
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. fácil
19. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. fácil
20. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 90
21. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. fácil
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 351
23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fácil